By Annabelle Conroy, Ph.D.
GEP Faculty Fellow
Why do we need to do this? I hear this all the time and, as a lecturer myself, I understand that having yet another thing to do can seem like an unnecessary burden. However, I wanted to explain why we are embarking on this process and what we are doing to make it as easy and painless as possible.
Why are we doing this? We need to have a baseline so we can determine how our students are currently doing regarding the GEP’s Learning Outcomes (LO). Are they doing well across all the GEP Foundations? Are there areas that require strengthening?
- The data will allow us to establish a baseline that we can use to record improvements over time.
- It will also enable us to show accreditation bodies that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and that we are doing it well. Without data, we will not be able to show this convincingly.
- In addition, the data will enable us to determine where we need to focus more resources (including securing external funding) and to show prospective students the value of our program.
- Assessing the GEP Learning Outcomes in the classroom also provides information to individual instructors that they can use to determine/modify/design specific assignments in their own classes.
I would like to emphasize that the assessment is done to measure how the GEP program is doing, not how individual instructors, departments, or schools are doing. This is why assessment is done in the middle of the semester, not at the end. Our aim is to take a snapshot of the skills our students have, not how they are doing in a particular class. Results are aggregated according to Foundation.
What are the assessment requirements? The GEP assessment process requires each instructor that is teaching a GEP course to have an assignment that measures at least one of their Foundation’s learning outcomes (LO). This assessment should be completed by the withdrawal deadline (Friday, March 29, 2024, 11:59 PM).
If you need information on what your foundation is, what its LOs are, or how to go about assessing them, please consult the General Education Faculty Learning Community or reach out to me or Amanda Pacheco. We will be very glad to help!
- To make it easier to submit, Canvas automatically pulls the data from all the courses that link an assignment to the GEP rubric. Instructors do not need to send the data to anyone.
- In addition, if you are using the New Quiz tool and link the quiz to the GEP rubric, the system will automatically record the student rubric categories.
- If you are using an alternative format (essays, presentations, Classic Quizzes, and so on) you need to manually assign rubric categories to each student but if you have a large class, you only need to do this for 50 students (although you are welcome to do this for more).
There are many resources available to help those who are doing this for the first time or are unsure of how to go about this. The General Education Faculty Learning Community canvas course has several guides and videos that can guide you through the process. We also have scheduled several drop-in sessions, and we are available too for individual consultations as well. Feel free to reach out to any of the GEP Co-leads, to Amanda Pacheco (GEP Instructional Specialist) or myself.
I hope this information is helpful, and, as always, if you have any questions, please email me or the GEP mailbox.